Yankees still struggling to hit with runners in scoring position but hoping that luck comes to their side

AP Photo/Kathy WillensThe Yankees are last in the AL at hitting with runners in scoring position and Robinson Cano is their worst everyday player, hitting .148 in those situations.

NEW YORK — To a man, the Yankees shrugged when asked once more to explain the inexplicable.

“I hope it’s bad luck,” Mark Teixeira said after a loss in which his team managed just one hit with runners in scoring position. “At this point, maybe it’s not.”

In virtually every important offensive category, the Yankees rank in the top five in the American League. They reach base. They hit for power. They score runs.

With men in scoring position, however, they could rightfully consider themselves the unluckiest hitters on the face of the Earth.

That’s what the numbers say about the Yanks, who have hit the ball well with runners in scoring position, though they’ve had little to show for it. Entering play today, their .218 average with men in scoring position ranks last in the American League.

Statistically, they’ve deserved better.

“I don’t imagine that there’s been a team that’s (gone) through it as long as we have and was 14 games or 15 games over .500,” manager Joe Girardi said. “Now, I imagine there are some teams that have (gone) through it and their records haven’t been as good.”

Indeed, they have gotten away with blowing more scoring chances than any other lineup in the league. At 41-27, the Yankees begin the Subway Series against the Mets tonight with the second-best record in the AL. But even Girardi acknowledges that something has to change if the Yankees hope to win a World Series.

“It is something that has to get better,” he said.

What that entails exactly remains a murky question. A debate rages on about the ability to hit with runners in scoring position, which by extension is another form of performing in the clutch. For some, hitting with runners on is a repeatable skill. For others, it is mainly a function of luck. And for many, it is an imprecise combination of both.

“I think it comes down to getting a good pitch to hit,” slugger Alex Rodriguez said. “Sometimes, you’re going to hit into some bad luck, you’re going to hit some balls at people. Like (longtime umpire) Durwood Merrill would say, sometimes you make a Hall of Fame pitch, and you have to tip your cap.”

Conclusive answers remain elusive, though this much is clear: With runners in scoring position, the Yankees have hit into more than their share of bad luck.

This season, they have a line-drive rate of 17.5 percent with men in scoring position. According to estimates on FanGraphs, at that rate, the Yankees’ average for balls in play should be around .303. That should translate into a much higher batting average with men in scoring position.

Instead, the .229 average for balls in play is the lowest mark in the league by nearly 50 points — and a strong indicator of bad luck. And whether that luck turns before the end of the season ultimately remains a matter of chance.

“I’m not a betting man,” Girardi said. “But if I was, I would bet that it’s going to change.”

In the past, the Yankees have been rewarded for understanding the factors that can make batting averages deceiving. When they traded for Nick Swisher before the 2009 season, they believed his batting average would bounce back, even though it had fallen to a paltry .219 with the White Sox.

What did the Yankees see that others didn’t? They recognized that Swisher had run into abnormally bad luck. Despite a healthy line-drive rate, his batting average for balls in play plummeted, which artificially deflated his average.

It’s the same phenomenon that has afflicted the batting average with runners in scoring position this season.

Ultimately, Swisher bounced back to become an All-Star-caliber player. But that turnaround didn’t begin until the 2009 season. The Yankees clearly hope for a quicker reversal of fortune when it comes to hitting with men in scoring position.

Logic dictates if they continue to do what they’re doing, if they keep putting the ball in play, if they keep making solid contact, the results will likely turn. But until that happens, they must lean on little more than hope.

Girardi and hitting coach Kevin Long have preached all season the importance of staying the course. They insist the bats in the lineup are too good to struggle over the long term.

However, the wait hasn’t been easy, and the answers are just as elusive now as they have been all season.

“It’s just not happening for us,” Girardi said. “I don’t really have a reason for it. We’ve hit some balls hard and they’ve been outs. I believe it is something that’s going to change.”